Creative Minds
Creative Minds partners with community centers and clinics throughout the city to incorporate brain health education and offer creative experiences informed by the cultural and linguistic backgrounds of our San Francisco Bay Area community members.

Creativity and artistic work are more than just enjoyable pastimes—they play a vital role in keeping our brains healthy and resilient. Research shows that engaging in creative activities like painting, music, writing, or dance helps stimulate different parts of the brain, building new connections that can protect against cognitive decline and may even lower the risk of dementia. Artistic expression also brings people together, fostering community bonds and offering a sense of belonging through shared projects and experiences. Additionally, art can express scientific concepts in a more accessible and inclusive way.

Creative Minds is a community art-for-brain-health initiative that was established in 2020 through the San Francisco Department of Aging Services in partnership with the UCSF Memory and Aging Center Community Outreach Program and the Atlantic Fellows program at the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI). Creative Minds brings together a diverse and talented group of artists, therapists, staff, and doctors from UCSF and GBHI who work with leaders and staff from community centers in San Francisco to support the brain health of aging adults living in underserved neighborhoods of the city. This unique collaboration also connects older people to expert clinical care and opportunities to participate in observational research projects on brain health at UCSF.

Creative Minds was originally envisioned by Dr. Serggio Lanata, Gloria Aguirre, and artists in the Atlantic Fellows program at GBHI as an in-person, community-based experience, and workshops have focused on photography, art, storytelling, dance, and music. The program hosts annual arts in health receptions and exhibitions in close collaboration with community partners. The program’s first arts-in-health exhibition took place in partnership with Mission Neighborhood Center in December of 2021, showcasing art, photography, and crafts created by participants during the height of shelter-in-place orders. In August of 2023, Creative Minds hosted its largest exhibition to date, Community + Art + the Brain, displaying the creative works of over 100 community members and hosting a series of arts in brain health events over 9 days. 

We are excited to celebrate creativity throughout the life course and the sense of community that is created by working together. Creativity also provides unique insights into how the brain works and heals.